A school for the cursed: A Psyker Quest. Warhammer 40k quest.

Voting is open
[X] Leading from the Front

Not sure if I multivoted earlier, so this mostly just in case.

A Diviner predicting an enemy ambush two hours (or even two minutes) in advance can change the course of a battle. A kine shield stopping a sniper round or airstrike aimed at a regimental headquarters or a munitions dump can change the course of a battle. These aren't things that regular Stormtroopers can do, but they sure do have plenty of tools for causing destruction on a mass scale.

Every faction in this setting goes for rule of cool, all the time. It's pretty damn telling that the Guardsman with a lasgun, armoured support and artillery coverage has won more wars than all of them put together. That it was the Macharian Crusade that expanded the Imperium's borders beyond even the bounds of what eighteen Space Marine Legions and nineteen Primarchs were able to conquer during the Great Crusade.

Moreover, I seriously dislike what it would say about Occam's character that he'll choose to take this new school, meant to alleviate the pressure on Terra from the sheer surging influx of Psykers needing training, and refuse to take in any but the best under his wing and throw them into danger so they can help make him look good to Imperial authorities.
Occam literally just watched a man get murdered for letting a mutant cook the officers food. Didn't matter how well she did her job, didn't matter how much trust she had with the soldiers. She was a mutant, which meant being unclean in the eyes of the people making decisions. If we want to pave the way for support psykers to matter, we need visibility with the officers first.
 
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[x] Plan: Trust & Discretion
-[X] Psychic support:
-[X] Sanctified stakes:
-[X] Quicksilver Nodule: The Wyrdvanes will not know it, but implanted within each of their craniums will be a sealed capsule of blessed mercury. Upon the presence of daemonic energies, the mercury within will react violently enough to rupture the capsule and swiftly corrode every scrap of living tissue within the skull. For the unfortunate Psyker, it will be as though they simply fell to a slumber they shall never awake from. Does not cause decapitation or destruction of the head. Denies vessels for Daemonhosts. Requires access to Ministorum clerics entrusted with the rites to bless the mercury.
 
[X] Leading from the Front

Just fair enough. Front it is. Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette for the officers so that they don't shoot our people.
 
Occam literally just watched a man get murdered for letting a mutant cook the officers food. Didn't matter how well she did her job, didn't matter how much trust she had with the soldiers. She was a mutant, which meant being unclean in the eyes of the people making decisions. If we want to pave the way for support psykers to matter, we need visibility with the officers first.

Not even that, she was a sancioned Abhuman and therefore a full Citizen Of the Imperium of Man, afforded the rights and duties of the Lex Imperialis... Which makes it significantly worse and I hope that we can enlist the ratling girl in our reutine if only because there is a decent chance that she doesn't make it our alive to the next destination...

But yeah, we need power and prestige if we want to matter in this sector, and the Psyker Shock troopers is the quickest and easiest ways to do it...

And besides that, the idea that going for the Psychic support will warm us up to the next generation of the brass and nobility is very naive, the most of what rank and file guradsmen can aspire in terms of promotion is to become a sargent, or at most a Luitenant... The ones who raise above that are one in several millions...
 
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Vote closed New
Scheduled vote count started by Mayto on Jan 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM, finished with 104 posts and 59 votes.
 
I'm pleased that a visible and invisible enforcement method was part of both leading plans, since I think that was an important thing to ensure went through. The focus that won wasn't the one I voted for, but there were no bad picks here, so I'm looking forward to seeing how Occam trains these shocktroop psykers, as well as who they'll end up fighting and how they'll fare.
 
I'm pleased that a visible and invisible enforcement method was part of both leading plans, since I think that was an important thing to ensure went through. The focus that won wasn't the one I voted for, but there were no bad picks here, so I'm looking forward to seeing how Occam trains these shocktroop psykers, as well as who they'll end up fighting and how they'll fare.

that was the plan, the nice thing about them is that the execution methods have overlapping benefits, in the sense that the bombs are general use, and are at Occam's own discretion, while the stakes are very much tailored to counter daemonhosts, something that the bombs aren't really sufficient for. I imagine blowing off the head of a daemonhost before he powers up, and sliding in a stake with telekinesis while they're disoriented by the blast should do well in mitigating their risk.

On another note, I think this is the first quest where I've had to argue/think about "optimal" execution methods :V
 
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Thank you for the compliment. I hope to make you feel morally conflicted in the future. :cry: :)
so mayto now that the vote is over, did this part of the psychic support option mean there was a chance of building higher level connections from those we supported?
-Your psykers will interact with blunts and your efforts will be seen and felt by many.
 
so mayto now that the vote is over, did this part of the psychic support option mean there was a chance of building higher level connections from those we supported?
-Your psykers will interact with blunts and your efforts will be seen and felt by many.
That will still be an option.

Imperial rule and diplomacy is all about hobnobbing and making connections. Expect a tendency to high up support, with less from the lower officers.

But these can all be mediated or improved.
 
The crowds moving through the city are sombre and focused, but the signs of malnutrition or disease you've come to expect from their lot is much lesser. There are the usual Administratum and Ministorum propaganda signs, but also advertising for commercial enterprises. Mostly guilds, although a few mentions of 'Void Brotherhoods' do pop up as well.

An Eclessiarchy prayer sermon ends over a vox speaker and you catch the tail end of it. You look at the large sign, framed by statues of angelic figures forming the frame of the holo-screen.
"-If you too find yourself tired after your shift, unable to perform thy duty, then try the labours of the Pious Aldanis Consortium."

The great flickering propaganda board shows a man sitting on the edge of a small two-person bed, head cupped in his hands, evidently distraught. A disappointed spouse lying behind him reading a dataslate. When he is handed a pack of Lho-Sticks. The man lights one up and climbs back into bed with his partner.

There is a fade to black, followed by a ditty and a large logo.

"Aldanis, ensuring the fruitful propagation of mankind for three millenia."

You blink. An advertisement after a Ministorum broadcast? On Terra just suggesting that would get a man servitorized.


I've been reading Warhammer Crime. Advertisements after ministorum broadcasts are a thing.
 
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Interpretation and musings on the Imperium. New
Mayto's Musings on Warhammer.



Warhammer 40k is a huge setting, and so there's a lot of different interpretations of what the Imperium is like. I find that SV often leans heavily on the most pitch black interpretation. To the point that I sometimes get the impression that people feel guilty about liking Warhammer or the Imperium.

I felt that I should make a post to explain the mindset I am working from, so people can tune their mindsets right. First off. I work from the point of view of the Warhammer Crimes books and the writings of Dan Abnett and the Ciaphas Cain books.

Secondly, that means I ,like to show off what life is like on the Imperial worlds or habitats that do have a concept of things like'
"Recreation time", "Jobs", and something called "money" which isn't just company script or a daily plate of nutrient gruel. It is much more interesting in my opinion, to show how families, leisure, and the like do still exist to some form in much of the Imperium. That the Imperium does have good people living in it that are just trying to play the hand life dealt them, even while the Imperium itself is a rotting carcass of an Empire.

I find that more interesting than just "everyone does nothing but work 20 hour shifts and pray." And most Black Library writers do as well. With worlds outside of this template being used as examples of just how damn shitty life can get.

Doesn't mean I'm gonna hold back and not show its brutal excesses, ofc. Just read the previous chapter. The war crimes and atrocities have barely gotten started.

But if you read my quest and don't occasionally go.
"Oh damn, I'm cheering for them.", "Oh yeah, I forgot these people are horrible", or an occasional "For the Imperium!"

Then I'll have failed as a writer. I want you to feel all those complex little emotions that come from reading your favorite charismatic hero off-handedly mention horrific things. Like the ever-lovable Ciaphas Cain mentioning using convicts for target practice.

We're adults here after all. (I hope.). So let's just embrace 40k warts and all and have fun with it.

TLDR:
in this quest we agree that the Imperium is an insane clusterfuck that loses whole worlds by bureaucratic mistakes, and that's just the way we like it.



I'd like to hear people's opinions about this take. Next update is coming along nicely. I think it's gonna be a fun one.
 
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in this quest we agree that the Imperium is an insane clusterfuck that loses whole worlds by bureaucratic mistakes, and that's just the way we like it.
You read Warhammer as a tragedy because of the suffering of myriads of people and you feel ashamed for the creators of this world.

I read Warhammer as a black comedy because here myriads of people suffer for completely trivial things.

We are not the same.
 
Mayto's Musings on Warhammer.



Warhammer 40k is a huge setting, and so there's a lot of different interpretations of what the Imperium is like. I find that SV often leans heavily on the most pitch black interpretation. To the point that I sometimes get the impression that people feel guilty about liking Warhammer or the Imperium.

I felt that I should make a post to explain the mindset I am working from, so people can tune their mindsets right. First off. I work from the point of view of the Warhammer Crimes books and the writings of Dan Abnett and the Ciaphas Cain books.

Secondly, that means I ,like to show off what life is like on the Imperial worlds or habitats that do have a concept of things like'
"Recreation time", "Jobs", and something called "money" which isn't just company script or a daily plate of nutrient gruel. It is much more interesting in my opinion, to show how families, leisure, and the like do still exist to some form in much of the Imperium. That the Imperium does have good people living in it that are just trying to play the hand life dealt them, even while the Imperium itself is a rotting carcass of an Empire.

I find that more interesting than just "everyone does nothing but work 20 hour shifts and pray." And most Black Library writers do as well. With worlds outside of this template being used as examples of just how damn shitty life can get.

Doesn't mean I'm gonna hold back and not show its brutal excesses, ofc. Just read the previous chapter.

But if you read my quest and don't occasionally go.
"Oh damn, I'm cheering for them.", "Oh yeah, I forgot these people are horrible", or an occasional "For the Imperium!"

Then I'll have failed as a writer. I want you to feel all those complex little emotions that come from reading your favorite charismatic hero off-handedly mention horrific things. Like the ever-lovable Ciaphas Cain mentioning using convicts for target practice.

We're adults here after all. (I hope.). So let's just embrace 40k warts and all and have fun with it.

TLDR:
in this quest we agree that the Imperium is an insane clusterfuck that loses whole worlds by bureaucratic mistakes, and that's just the way we like it.



I'd like to hear people's opinions about this take. Next update is coming along nicely. I think it's gonna be a fun one.

Pretty much my own take on the matter, for every shmuck who gets his soul devoured a daemon, there's probably ten who live out peaceful lives and never live through any sort of excitement at all. Fundamentally, the Imperium couldn't care less about what your government is, or how you live, so long as you pay your tithe and obey the Emperor and his edicts.

We just have a tendency to see the worst of what the Imperium has to offer because that's where 40k derives much of it's image.
 
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